HarperCollins Publishing building in the Keystone Industrial Park in Throop.
HarperCollins Publishers recently relocated local operations from Throop to Scranton.
The New York-based company vacated a building it had occupied at the Keystone Industrial Park in Throop since 1966 and moved to 53 Glenmaura Blvd., which also houses Cigna Healthcare’s customer service center said Erin Crum, spokeswoman for HarperCollins, a book publishing subsidiary of News Corp., a New York media and entertainment conglomerate headed by magnate Rupert Murdoch.
The March relocation moves HarperCollins into larger space in a modern building.
The company employs 220 people who work in accounting, information technology, collections and customer service.
HarperCollins locked into a long-term lease of 34,600 square feet at the Glenmaura site, said John Cognetti, president of Hinerfeld Commercial Real Estate, who served as broker for the receiver that administers the property on behalf of creditors.
Minneapolis-based U.S. National Bank Association assumed ownership of the Glenmaura property in March as a result of a foreclosure auction Dec. 10 in federal court. The former owner, a Montgomery County real estate investment company, owed $12.5 million on the 189,000-square-foot structure when it went into default.
HarperCollins had 31,650 square feet of space at the industrial park and additional adjoining warehouse space it no longer needed Mr. Cognetti said.
“They wanted to keep their office operation here,” he said. “They needed their space upgraded and expanded and that is what they got.”
The 30-acre Keystone Industrial Park property, which includes 296,000 square feet of building space, is owned by a group of New York City-area investors. It is being marketed for lease by Cushman & Wakefield, a New York-based commercial real estate firm.
HarperCollins started looking for new space in 2012, said Amy Luyster, an executive at the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce.
“HarperCollins has a long history with Lackawanna County as a principal employer,” Ms. Luyster said. “We are thankful for their commitment to keeping jobs in the area.”
HarperCollins started seeking a different location by the time it revealed plans in 2012 to cease its warehouse and distribution operations locally. The company cited decreasing book sales and the growing popularity of electronic reading devices as it laid off about 200 union workers in phases in 2013.
The chamber constructed the Keystone Industrial Park building in the mid-1960s for Harper & Row, a predecessor to HarperCollins.
The Glenmaura building was open to occupancy in 2002.
Contact the writer: jhaggerty@timesshamrock.com
**Photo credit MICHAEL J. MULLEN / TIMES-TRIBUNE STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
